James Madison

Madison drafted the Memorial and Remonstrance of 1785, a petition against a bill to provide for teachers of the Christian religion (Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance opening address). It holds that religion must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man (Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance 1) and that the assembly has no authority to pass such a bill (Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance 15). He sat through the session of the Virginia assembly that ended on 21 January 1786 and reported to Thomas Jefferson the next day that the bill for religious freedom had become law with its enacting clauses unaltered, adding that he hoped it had put an end in Virginia to “the ambitious hope of making laws for the human mind” (Madison to Jefferson, 22 January 1786, para. beginning ‘Our Assembly last night’). See Religious Freedom in the United States.